'Snow White' mired in controversy

Express Tribune

23-03-2025

Snow White, the latest Disney live-action remake of one of its classics, cost the entertainment company a reported $270 million (€247 million) to make and promote, according to Forbes magazine.
As per DW, masses of reporters usually interview the film stars on the red carpet at the opening of such big budget films. However, journalists were generally barred from the Hollywood premiere on March 15 and the European debut, three days earlier at a remote castle in northern Spain.
It is widely assumed that the media's restricted access to the stars and creative team is linked to a storm of online comments and more substantial political debates throughout the film's production.
Racist reaction
The racist comments started in June 2021, when Rachel Zegler was first revealed as the film's star.
Zegler, who made her film debut in Steven Spielberg's 2021 remake of West Side Story, is of Colombian and Polish descent. Racist commentators were outraged by the choice of a Latina to portray the title character. They had similarly decried the casting of Halle Bailey, who is Black, to star in The Little Mermaid in 2023.
Instead of being named for her "skin as white as snow," Zegler said in a 2024 interview with Variety, the backstory for Snow White's name in the new film refers to another version of the fairy tale, in which the girl survives a snowstorm as a baby. "And so the king and queen decided to name her Snow White to remind her of her resilience," said Zegler.
Removing the 'stalker'
Another update to the story is that it no longer focuses on the outdated view that a girl can only be saved by getting married - and hopefully to a prince.
Zegler discussed this aspect by describing the prince as a "stalker."
"The original cartoon came out in 1937 and very evidently so. There's a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her," Zegler said in 2022.
Zegler said the new film centered on "an inner journey that she goes on to find her true self and she meets a lot of people along the way that makes the journey really incredible."
Those comments also reinforced the views of online commenters already convinced that it would be a "woke" film.
The seven dwarfs
Peter Dinklage, the award-winning actor from Game of Thrones, launched another debate surrounding Snow White through an interview on Marc Maron's WTF podcast in 2022.
Though Dinklage praised Disney for casting a Latina as Snow White, he felt it didn't make sense to be "progressive in one way," but then to still be making a "backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together."
Dinklage, who has a form of dwarfism, is one of the most prominent figures in disability representation. The actor has made a point of avoiding stereotypical roles commonly reserved for actors from little people communities.
A day after the interview, Disney announced that it would change Snow White's co-stars to "magical creatures" created with CGI.
However, many actors from little people communities said this represented a loss of potential roles in a major production.
"There really is nothing wrong casting someone with dwarfism as a dwarf in any given opportunity. As long as we are treated equally and with respect, we're usually more than happy to take on any acting roles that are suitable for us," said performer Choon Tan, known as the "UK's smallest bodybuilder." He described the movie's reliance on CGI for the characters as "absolutely absurd and discriminating in a sense."
"I think Disney is trying too hard to be politically correct, but in doing so it's damaging our careers and opportunities," he said.
Boycotting Gal Gadot
When Disney released the first Snow White teaser in 2024, there were calls from Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions activists to boycott the film because of the casting of Israeli actress Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) in the role of the Evil Queen.
Gadot has shown continued support for Israel. Meanwhile, Zegler has added #freePalestine hashtags in her social media promotion of the film. Gadot's and Zegler's opposing political views have fuelled rumors of a feud between the stars.
An evolving story
People who insist that Snow White's skin should be white as snow or that her only path to happiness is to become a married princess should note that Disney had already taken various liberties in its 1937 adaptation of the original German Brothers Grimm fairy tale.
The Brothers Grimm collected oral folk tales from different sources and compiled them in their Children's and Household Tales, which was first published in 1812. They also made changes and additions until they reached their seventh edition in 1857, which contained 200 tales.
A major difference, for example, is that the brothers' Snow White does not wake up from the prince's kiss, as portrayed in Disney's 1937 version. Instead, the poisoned apple comes out of her throat when one of the prince's servants trips and loses his balance while transporting the glass coffin. In another version, a servant of the prince is so annoyed that he has to carry the glass coffin everywhere for the prince that he hits the seemingly dead girl on the back, causing the piece of apple to come out of her throat.
At the end of the Grimm fairy tale, the Evil Queen is given red-hot iron slippers in which she is to dance to death at Snow White's wedding. Disney's 1937 version does not conclude with such a torture scene. Instead, the Evil Queen — still dressed as the old lady — is about to roll a boulder onto the dwarfs when lightning strikes on the edge of the cliff where she is standing. She then falls to her death.